To Be the Best
by Azzurri Raine
Summary: To strengthen the newfound peace between the lands, the Shinobi Countries are holding a tournament where the best of the best will come together in fights where honor, valor, teamwork and good sportsmanship are valued.
1. Chosen

**Title**: To Be the Best

**Rating**: M

**Summary**: To strengthen the newfound peace between the lands, the Shinobi Countries are holding a tournament where the best of the best will come together in fights where honor, valor, teamwork and good sportsmanship are valued. But there is an unknown evil lurking in the shadows, waiting to find the perfect moment to shatter the dreams of peace and unity.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto.

**Warning**: This story contains some adult contents.

**Author's note**: If I needed to, I would compare the Shinobi Tournament to the World Cup, only without a ball and more blood (ha-ha). And some of you may consider Sasuke OOC in this one, but I don't. You see, I don't picture him to stay cold forever, especially not after he's accomplished his goal and all. That said, I don't expect him to start singing and spouting love poems. I guess for me, whether he's OOC or not would depend on the extent of his changes and I hope I managed to cast him the right light. As for **Return to Me**, I'm terribly sorry for the lack of update but after my laptop crashed a month ago, I lost a lot of documents, the half-finished 7th chapter for **RtM** being one of them and since then, I couldn't exactly re-write it to my satisfaction. But I'm slowly getting my groove back and I'm hoping to post a new chapter very soon.

**And for NejiSaku fans, visit my livejournal (link can be found in my author's profile) for a fic treat**.

I made some adjustment with the last part of this chapter because I thought the adjustments were too little to post on my LJ

Enjoy this new story and remember to review. Bye

* * *

**Chapter One: Chosen  
**

Standing before the large solid-oak desk, Shizune stared at her mentor and leader apprehensively as the older woman continued to move her pen, the _scritch-scratch_ of tip against paper deafening in the silence of the room. The Hokage was wearing one of her "serious" faces, as some called it, a slight groove on her otherwise wrinkle-free forehead, her brown-red eyes intent on the document in front of her.

Finally, when the black-haired assistant couldn't stand the silence anymore—an unusual occurrence in her mentor's office—she hugged the sleeping pig against her chest and blurted out, "Are you sure about this, Tsunade-sama?"

The blonde woman looked up and lifted a questioning eyebrow. "About what?"

"This. The tournament." Shizune gestured at the scroll beneath her leader's palm. "The instructions say to choose the best of the best. And that team—"

"_Is_ the best of the best," Tsunade declared affirmatively. She leaned back in her chair, her eyes narrowing contemplatively. "I'm not choosing the best _individuals_, though granted they are of the _elite_—I'm choosing the best _team_. And when it comes to that, there's not a better one around. As individuals, they balance each other perfectly—as a team, they are truly a force to be reckoned with."

"But considering their history—"

"All the better," the Hokage interrupted. She sighed and a wry smile crossed her beautiful face. "The peace between the villages—between the countries—is still very fragile, Shizune. Despite the treaty that was signed two years ago, trust between the shinobi lands is still a rare commodity. This tournament is just one of the ways to show that we can work together, fight in a _friendly_ battle, without allowing distrust and prejudice to interfere.

"As for my choice to represent Konoha, truth is, _every_one knows of their history. In spite of the extreme hardships they've been through, this team has, in the end, managed to survive and stay loyal to each other, protect one another fiercely even when everything seemed stacked against them. _That's_ what I want the rest of the ninja world to see—their loyalty, their trust, their friendship." Tsunade smiled at her apprentice, this niece of her deceased beloved. "Do you understand now, Shizune?"

Said ninja discreetly wiped a tear that had trickled from the corner of her eye at her mentor's impassionate speech and nodded vigorously. "Hai, Tsunade-sama, hai."

"Good." Tsunade gave the scroll one last scrutiny before placing her seal at the bottom.

After a moment, Shizune started hesitantly, "Ano, Tsunade-sama . . ."

"Yes, Shizune?"

"These two—" Shizune pointed at the two names filled in the list of participants "—they just got married."

"I know. I was there," Tsunade reminded the younger woman wearily as she recalled the day. Ninja weddings were always chaotic, but _that_ particular ceremony with its _interesting_ guests had made her praise Kami when it finally ended. Of course, she hadn't been able to thank Kami until a day later, when she woke up with the worst hangover of her life and the intent to murder the best man for drawing the markings of a fox on her face and writing _"Obaa-san"_ across her forehead.

"Should we bother them, then?" Shizune asked worriedly. "They're newlyweds and this time of the marriage is very crucial—"

"They'd probably thank me for it. They haven't seen any kind of action in a while—at least not on the field," the Hokage added with a knowing smile that reminded her blushing apprentice of a certain romance novel author. "Knowing them, they've been itching for a good fight or two. In fact, they should think of this as my wedding gift to them—I didn't get them anything."

Shizune refrained to remark that it was because the older woman had gambled away the wedding gift and said, "I suppose you're right. Oh, I do hope they won't get into any trouble."

"With this lot?" Tsunade snorted. "Monkeys will sooner fly. I won't be surprised if they _cause_ trouble. However, at least with them, I will not have to worry whether they can handle it or not."

"Demo, Tsunade-sama . . ."

"Yes?"

"That last participant . . . are you sure? He's never had a mission with them—at least not with the _complete _team . . ."

Tsunade grinned. "It's a gamble, Shizune, and this time, I know it's going to pay off."

Shizune could only suppress a shudder. As much as she loved her mentor, she knew the older woman wasn't named the "Legendary Sucker" for nothing. _Kami-sama help us all_.

* * *

"A Shinobi Tournament?" the pink-haired young woman wondered out loud as she read the scroll—which had been delivered by a squealing pink pig moments ago—in her hand. She held it up closer to her face. "Shinobi from all five great countries are obligated to participate and other shinobi countries would be welcomed as well. And look, the Land of Rice Fields is invited too!" 

"Yosh!" the blonde-haired man sitting next to her exclaimed as he pumped his fist in the air. "Fight!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and glanced at her silver-headed former instructor who sat at the end of the table. His masked face was hidden by the dreadful book she had given up forcing him to throw away, seemingly not at all surprised by the sudden turn of events.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei," she began, unable to drop the title even though he had officially stopped being her teacher years ago, "did you know about this?"

"The Hokage told me about it this morning," he answered without looking up.

"And you didn't think to tell us?" Sakura demanded. "We've been here for more than an hour!"

Kakashi shrugged, much to her irritation. She contemplated on throwing her half-eaten ramen bowl at him but knew the infuriating man would catch it before it hit his head.

"So what kind of tournament is this anyway?" Naruto wanted to know, leaning closer to her side to look at the scroll. "Like a fight-to-the-death kind or a let-me-show-you-what-I-can-do kind?"

"More of the latter," Sakura murmured as she continued to peruse the scroll. "And it's going to be held in Kusagakure—Grass Country." Her delicate eyebrows knitted. "That's hardly a great shinobi country is it?"

"Maybe they didn't want to offend any of the five great lands and decided to hold the event on a more neutral territory," came the remark from over her shoulder. She had to resist the urge to shiver in delight. His deep voice had never failed to rouse such a reaction from her, more so after they became husband and wife less than three weeks ago. And the feeling of his hot breath tickling the back of her neck as he stood behind her to read the scroll sent tingles running up and down her spine and for a fleeting moment, she thought longingly of the large bed in their master bedroom . . .

"Sakura-chan? Are you okay? You look flushed all of a sudden," Naruto observed with a worried frown.

She lifted a hand and cupped her heated cheek, thoroughly embarrassed to be caught blushing like a school girl. "I'm fine, Naruto," she answered tersely. "It just suddenly got . . . _warm_ for a moment."

The low chuckle from behind her told her _he_ knew exactly why she was currently imitating an apple. "Jerk," she muttered.

"What was that, Sakura-chan?"

"N-nothing, Naruto!" She waved her fingers back and forth in front of her face. "Nothing at all!"

Naruto's brows knitted but he decided to let it go. He glanced at the black-haired man standing behind her. "Ne, Sasuke, what do _you _think this tournament is all about?"

The Uchiha heir's smirk faded from his handsome face as he looked away from his wife, whose head was bent so low her nose was all but touching the scroll. "It says here that the tournament is meant to strengthen the ties between the shinobi countries. That's why even the minor ones are invited," he told his friend.

Kakashi finally spoke up. "Apparently, the governments decided that to observe peace between the lands, we should fight each other in a _friendly_ competition. If you read further, the set up is almost the same as the Chuunin exams'. Obstacle courses, one-on-one matches, the whole ninja picture. They'll be testing your skills both as a team and as individuals, but with the stressing on teamwork."

"No killing," Sakura piped up hopefully. Despite her shinobi status, she wasn't the type to kill unnecessarily—not if she could avoid it—and definitely not over some trophy.

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "No killing," he echoed with a nod. "It's a friendly tournament, where unity and good sportsmanship are very important. They had one like this before, if memory serves me right, right after the Ninja World War, but it wasn't as large as this one promises to be. Not many villages participated because they were too busy recuperating from the damages the War caused."

"The politicians are really pouring it thick with their peace-between-all propaganda, considering even the Sound nins will be there," Sasuke remarked.

"Demo, Kakashi-sensei, isn't this a little too hypocritical?" Sakura asked, biting on her bottom lip. "In order to show peace the villages are going to _fight_ each other and show who has the better warriors?"

"You shouldn't look at it like that, Sakura. This is more of a sports competition," Kakashi pointed out. "It's the countries' way of proving to all that they can engage in a fight without breaking the peace treaty. Winners will win honorably and the others will accept defeat gracefully. When it comes down to it, isn't that the basic of all sports?"

"I suppose," Sakura admitted reluctantly. "Oh, but the treaty is so very new! This would be the first time since the threat of another ninja world war that all the villages are gathering together. I hope no one gets it in their idiotic minds to start something."

"Of course they will," Sasuke declared with certainty. He sat down on the other side of his wife, gesturing at a nearby waiter to refill his empty cup of tea. "But with security being so tight and all the most skilled shinobi gathered in one venue, it's going to take a _really_ big idiot to think that they'll get away with it."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. He grinned at his female friend. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan. All the _real_ bastards are gone—the leftovers are going to be a piece of cake."

"That said, we should watch our backs," Kakashi declared. "Even with the treaty, there's going to be some groups itching to hurt us."

Sakura said thoughtfully, "I wonder why Tsunade-sama chose us, considering our . . . _involvement_ during the Great Battle two years ago."

"Didn't you read the scroll, Sakura? It says that all village leaders must choose the best of best. Obviously, we're the best of the best!" Naruto placed his hands on his hips, threw his head back and laughed boisterously.

"I think, Sakura," Kakashi began as he narrowly managed to dodge a certain prodigy's flying shuriken that had been meant for the laughing blonde beside him. "That it's _because_ of the roles we played that we were chosen for this tournament. Tsunade wants the rest of the ninja world to know that she still trusts us, despite the stunts we pulled."

"What stunts?" Naruto demanded, seemingly offended. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"You'd be surprised, Naruto," Sasuke dryly. "This is probably hard for you to understand, but in some villages they consider disobeying their leaders' orders and turning away from a mission for personal reasons to be _wrong_. Imagine that, ne?"

Sakura frowned as she read a particular statement on the scroll. "It says here the tournament officially begins in less than three weeks but participants are _encouraged_ to arrive ten days prior to get to know each other."

"What's this, a social call?" Sasuke scoffed.

"Actually, if you really think about it, it kinda is. Everybody together under one roof, promoting general welfare. That sounds like a social event, _ne?_" Naruto pointed out smugly, pleased with the fact that he figured it out before the prodigy did and one-up him for his earlier sarcasm.

"Urusei."

Sakura ignored them and chewed her inner cheek thoughtfully. "The date's pretty close isn't it? And this event is too sudden to be a spur of a moment thing so the governments must have been planning it for a while. How come we didn't hear about it sooner?"

When she noticed the crease near her former instructor's exposed eye, she set down the paper with a thump. "Kakashi-sensei, you knew about it, didn't you!"

"The tournament requires a participating member's vote on the venue," Kakashi simply stated.

"How could you not tell us?" Sakura complained, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah!" Naruto interjected. "We could've trained for it!"

"Naruto, Sakura, you guys don't need to train—at least not more than you usual do. This isn't a battle to the death, it's not a shinobi exam—it's a competition between skilled ninjas. If I thought you guys needed further training to be in the competition, than I wouldn't have agreed with Tsunade-sama's choice," Kakashi explained calmly.

Sakura blinked. "I think, in your strange, almost nonsensical reasoning, you just complimented us."

"Keh!" Naruto snorted. "Twenty-years-old and he's still treating us like we're twelve, making our decision for us," he grumbled, but there was no malice in his words.

"I have a question," Sasuke said. Everyone turned to look at him. "Do we go in as ANBU operators?"

"No," Kakashi answered. "Jounins. We're not being sent to assassinate anyone."

Sasuke almost, _almost_ felt disappointed. He hadn't worn his ANBU uniform in the field for almost a month—not because he had been purposely shunned, but because there had been no missions where his particular brand of skills had been needed. And the missions he _had _been on lately hadn't been really interesting, either. A few assholes he could have easily defeated as a Chuunin, one exceptionally annoying escort assignment and bodyguard job that had him resisting the impulse to kill the client himself for "accidentally" touching Sakura far too many times. Lately, his only consolation had been helping to train new Jounins and ANBU nins and even then he couldn't do the things he wanted to do because _that_ wouldn't have endured him to the Hokage. Personally, he was pleased with the upcoming tournament; only the best shinobi would be there and he looked forward to pitting his abilities against an opponent of an equal level.

Sakura could see the eagerness in her husband's eyes, though she knew it was only apparent to her. Over the years, she had come to know him well, albeit in a different way than Naruto and Kakashi had. While to the rest of the world he appeared calm and aloof, only to those he truly trusted did he reveal himself and she considered herself extremely fortunate to be one of those few, to be able to see past the seemingly cold exterior to the man who burned blue fire.

She reached up and brushed his bangs away from his face, a gesture that went unnoticed by their teammates, who were engaged in discussing about the tournament. She smiled when he caught her hand and gave it a brief squeeze before gently letting go. He was still unused to responding to her public displays of affection but he was getting there, she believed. And until then, she took great delight in being able to touch him or trace her lips fleetingly across his cheek without being pushed away.

"Ne, I just noticed something," Naruto announced as his bright blue gaze fell on a particular sentence on the scroll.

"Nani?" Sakura asked.

"It says here—" the blonde pointed "—that each village must select a _five_-person team. Since there's only four of us—"

"So you _can_ count," Sasuke muttered loud enough for his friend to hear.

Naruto made a rude hand gesture but continued, "—and the rules require a five-person team, who's the sucker that got drafted with us?"

"Maybe it's Sai," Sakura murmured as she reached for the document that contained other information.

"He's still on a mission in Wind Country," Kakashi reminded her.

"Thank God," Naruto said with a relieved sigh. "We've already got one bastard on the team."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and straightened in his seat. "Say that again."

Naruto opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Sakura gasped as she realized who the fifth member of their team was. "Oh my!"

"Who is it, Sakura-chan?"

"It's . . ." Her words trailed off as her gaze fell on a tall, dark-haired man who had just appeared at the ramen bar, pushing aside the red and white curtains.

Three sets of eyes turned to look at the man that had caught Sakura's attention. A pair widened in disbelief, another narrowed impatiently while the last pair—although only one eye was exposed—crinkled with amusement.

The man grinned, showing off a set of perfectly even white teeth, marred only by the senbon sticking out of his mouth.

"Yo," Shiranui Genma said with a small salute and a wink toward the only female teammate. "Lookin' forward to workin' with you guys."

* * *

"Well, Naruto wasn't exactly pleased, was he?" Sakura commented with a dry smile as she folded a pair of pants and placed it into her open satchel. 

Sasuke, sitting at the corner of their bedroom while he sharpened his already-razor-like weapons grunted in agreement, allowing a corner of his mouth to curve upwards. "Are you surprised? He finds it difficult to let _any_one enter the team. How do you think he's going to act with Genma, considering the stunt he pulled a year ago?"

Sakura laughed as she remembered the story she'd heard from Kakashi about a prank Genma had played on Naruto involving multiple jugs of sake and a cross-dresser. "Naruto should've known better than to enter a drinking contest with Genma," she mused out loud. Her amusement faded and a frown appeared on her lovely face. "I hope he won't let his personal feelings jeopardize the tournament."

"Naruto's more professional than you think."

Sakura shot her husband a look. "Meaning he'll work hard to win the competition but at the same he'll work hard to get even with Genma as well?"

Sasuke smiled. "Exactly."

He was beautiful when he smiled, she thought and then had to laugh at herself. He'd probably give her one of those infamous glares of his if she were to tell him so. _Men aren't _beautiful, he would tell her, annoyed, the tips of his ears reddening slightly. But he was. Although in recent years he'd began to smile more often, the occasions were so sporadic that she cherished each and every one of them as she would gold. She loved it when he smiled. Not the arrogant, I-am-Uchiha-Sasuke, bow-down-to-me smirk, but a _real_ smile, one that reached his eyes and softened his sharp features.

She glanced at the bedside table on which she'd placed two photo frames. One was of the two of them on their wedding day—she portrayed the perfect epitome of a blushing bride with her rosy cheeks and shy smile while he stood behind her, darkly handsome and imposing, his arm wrapped possessively around her waist. He hadn't wanted to take a picture but she had cajoled him and when the time came to pose he had been perfectly willing to stand beside her, his face stoic to the point of looking bored. But he hadn't appreciated the way the photographer had stared and leered at his new wife and thus that was how the picture came to be. Sakura smiled and recalled the extra tip she had given the photographer.

Her eyes strayed to the other picture, that of Team Seven, taken several months after the peace treaty. In it she stood between Sasuke and Naruto with Kakashi standing on the other side of the blonde. They were all smiling at the camera—the corner of Kakashi's eye was crinkled—and they were in their Jounin jackets. It had been a great day for them. The treaty was being carried out properly, any signs of rebellion had been taken care of and Team Seven had been given the week off. Naruto had eaten so much ramen that morning he'd been having trouble walking while Kakashi had been overjoyed—disturbingly so, Sakura thought—over the latest edition of _Icha Icha Paradise. _

For a second Sakura recalled another picture, wrinkled and slightly yellowed with age, safely tucked in her memory chest, where Kakashi had still been tall enough to stand behind them without being overshadowed. _We've come so far_, she thought wistfully. Sometimes she couldn't believe how her life—_how their lives_—had turned out. Once in a while she would wake up in the morning expecting to see the ceiling of her bedroom in her parents' house, her girlish heart eager to begin training in hopes of impressing a certain black-haired prodigy. And then she would roll on to her side and breathed in the lingering scent of her husband on his pillow—he was such an early riser it was ridiculous—and remember that her childish dreams had come true and she was now the black-haired prodigy's wife. Although how they had gotten to this point had not been how she'd dreamed it would be, they _did_ get there. And in the end, she knew she couldn't begrudge the years of his absence. In some ways it had taken him leaving for her to realize the difference between a childish infatuation and a woman's love.

As she finished folding the clothes she would need for the next two weeks or so, her mind wandered to the tournament. She grimaced; with her work at the hospital, she was the one in the team who hadn't seen field action the longest. While she had disciplined herself to train for at least an hour everyday, she knew she was slightly rusty. She could only hope she wouldn't embarrass her team and her village at the tournament. Though she had come a long way from the insecure twelve-year-old she had been, there were still moments when she doubted herself. _Especially_, she mused wryly, _when my overprotective husband and his overbearing best friend refuse to let me join in a fight_.

She turned to look at said husband; he had finished sharpening his weapons and had lined them up on a nearby table, admiring them the way a proud mother would do her children. If Sakura weren't disinclined to be glared at, she would laugh at the expression on his face. Her husband was a shinobi to his very bones.

Her amusement faded when she returned her thoughts to the tournament. "Ne, Sasuke-kun?"

He looked up at that. These days, she no longer placed the suffix in his name unless if she wanted to say something that she knew would irritate him—or if she wanted to, for lack of a better term, get frisky. And since his wife wasn't showing any signs of taking off her clothes, he was inclined to think she wanted to do the former and braced himself with a quiet, resigned sigh.

"What is it?"

"This tournament . . . it's almost like a sports competition, right? Like Kakashi-sensei said?"

"Yeah," he answered slowly, perplexed.

"So you won't take it seriously, ne? I mean, not _too_ seriously, not like you would, say, an ANBU mission." Sakura wrapped her arms around her waist and smiled nervously at her husband. "It's just a _friendly_ competition, after all. So you won't have to use all of your skills . . . and when I say _all_ of your skills, what I really mean is the Mange—"

Sasuke interrupted her babble. "I get it." He almost smiled; as usual, his wife was worried about him, even though it was absolutely unnecessary. Since the Great Battle between Konoha and Sound ended more than two years ago, he had resorted to using the more dangerous abilities of his blood limit—mainly the Mangekyou—only during dire situations, such as S-rank or at times A-rank missions. He knew Sakura had concerns about the Mangekyou, not only because of how it affected him physically if he used it for long periods, but also because of the effect it had on his bloodlust.

"I understand the rules," he told Sakura. "Unless the threat is serious, I won't use the Mangekyou. Or kill anyone," he added when she opened her mouth.

She smiled and nodded happily, her ponytail swishing as she turned around to zip up her bag. "Good. Because this tournament is supposed to promote goodwill between the countries, after all. I guess I shouldn't have to worry. You're going to fight accordingly and not interfere in my fights either," she added that last one in a off-handed tone of voice, hoping against hope that her husband had already started to tune her out the way he had when they were kids.

Unfortunately, things didn't always go the way she hoped. Her husband, with his acute sense of hearing, put down a kunai he had lifted to inspect and said, "What?"

She turned around, wringing her hands nervously at her stomach. "Sasuke," she began calmly. "I'm a shinobi and I _can_ fight."

"You think I don't know that?" he asked just as calmly.

"You sure don't _act_ like it. On the last several missions we were assigned together, you interfered in _my_ fights when _you_ thought the situation was becoming dicey when in fact, I could have handled it _by myself_."

A muscle ticked in his jaw and his beautiful black eyes—which currently resembled black ice chips—narrowed. "I didn't know _protecting_ you was considered interference."

Sakura let out a heavy sigh and went to stand in front of him, their knees almost touching. "Sasuke, I _love_ you for wanting to protect me," she said and his eyes gentled slightly. "But I'm a shinobi—a skilled, _elite_ shinobi."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. "So what do you want me to do?"

His wife took a deep breath and slowly released it. "This tournament—you and I both know there will be a lot of shinobi of our level present. I want you to promise me that you'll trust me take care of myself, even if you think the situation is becoming dangerous," she added, knowing that when it came to her, things that weren't usually considered dangerous were perceived so by him. Once, a long time ago, she would have been perfectly thrilled by his protectiveness and although a part of her was still happy about it, another part of her—the kunoichi who was considered to be a part of an elite breed—wasn't. Admittedly, she _had_ needed his help when circumstances were too dodgy for her skills alone, but there had been too many times—especially since they formed an exclusive relationship—when he had stepped between her and an opponent before she could even reach for her kunai. It wasn't a deliberate insult to her shinobi capabilities—she refused to believe otherwise—but rather an instinctive act. Naruto had snorted and told her it was probably Sasuke's way of hogging the spotlight, the teme—Naruto's words not hers—and since protecting her had never interfered with his own fights neither Kakashi nor Naruto said anything. _Men_.

He stared at her for a long time before bluntly saying, "No."

A frustrated groan escaped her throat. "Sasuke!"

He glared at her. "You expect me to sit back and watch you get killed? You _really_ expect me to do that?" He had always thought she was a little bit reckless, but never stupid.

"No one's saying anything about getting killed, Sasuke. This is a friendly tournament—no one will get seriously hurt."

Sasuke scoffed. "Right. A tournament participated by highly-skilled shinobi who will fight each other to show who's best. Not to mention that some of them will probably target us. So yes, _no one's_ getting hurt." He let out a sharp bark of laughter. "God, Sakura, if you believe that, you're more foolish than I thought." The moment the words slipped out, he could have kicked himself. _Ah, hell._

Sakura's moss-green eyes widened with a slight hint of hurt—and a lot of anger. "You think I'm foolish?"

"Sakura—"

"I must be foolish—I married _you_, didn't I?" she shouted as she turned around and stomped toward the door.

Sasuke sprang to his feet. "Where are you going?"

"To Ino's! You can sleep alone tonight in your big, no-fools-allowed bed!"

Ino, as Sasuke remembered Sakura telling him a few days ago, was currently having a _thing_ with Inuzuka Kiba. But a year or so ago, when Sasuke and Sakura's relationship had still not gone further than trusted friends, she'd went out on a couple of dates with Inuzuka, who had reportedly been _crushed_ when she had decided to be with Sasuke. And now knowing that Inuzuka might be at Ino's place, Sasuke would be damned before he let his _distressed_ wife go there to look for _comfort_. He wouldn't put it past the bastard mutt to not take advantage of the situation, even if he _were_ in the house of the woman he was supposedly dating. And what was that crap about marrying him being foolish?

"Like hell you are," Sasuke spat as he followed his wife down the hallway of their house.

"Why? Afraid I might do something _foolish_?" she hissed over her shoulder.

"Sakura, you're being childish." _Hello, foot, meet mouth_.

She whirled around so abruptly they almost collided into each other. As it was, Sasuke had to reach out and steady her before she fell onto her butt. "Childish? Childish!" she practically shrieked. "So now I'm childish _and_ foolish?"

"Damn it, Sakura." Sasuke tightened his hold on her shoulders. She struggled and he gave her a slight shake. "Kuso, will you _stop_ it?"

Her head shot up and her green eyes glittered furiously. Much to his surprise, she thumped his chest with her fists—not enough to hurt because with Sakura, a solid punch could mean a trip to the other side of the village.

"Saku—"

She hit him again, her cheeks flushed red. "I'm not useless! And I'm not weak!" she cried.

It took him a moment, but he suddenly understood her almost hysterical vehemence and his heart softened in a way only Sakura could make it. As a Genin, she'd been told too often, even by those she considered her friends, that she wasn't cut out to be a shinobi, that she was weak and useless. He himself had been guilty of believing her to be those things when they were younger, but years ago, he had come to the conclusion that Sakura—_his_ Sakura—was truly something special. She was one hell of a shinobi—and one hell of a woman. The fact that she had agreed to be his wife in spite of everything he had done was proof of the incredible person she was.

His hands slipped from her shoulders down to her back and he pulled her closer. She didn't resist, choosing instead to bury her face in his chest, her head fitting perfectly underneath his chin.

"I'm not weak," she repeated. "I'm not."

"No, you're not," he agreed firmly. "You're not useless and you're sure as hell aren't weak."

"Then what _is_ it?" she demanded bemusedly.

"You're my wife," he replied simply.

Sakura's anger instantly melted. Sasuke wasn't the type to express his emotions with words—he was more of the action-speaks-louder kind of man, but the moments when he _did _say something sentimental (or as close to sentimental as he was ever going to get) she knew she didn't have a chance.

She pulled back slightly and scowled up at him. "That's not _fair_," she pouted, hitting him once more though this time there was no actual anger behind it. "You can't say something like _that_ in _that_ voice and expect me to stay mad. You're supposed to let me stew and—and—"

"Sakura."

She sighed, staring at the front of his shirt. "You don't play fair," she complained.

"I don't play at all," he shot back wryly. It was his turn to sigh as he brushed her bare arm with his fingers. "I meant what I said, Sakura—you're my wife. I can't _not_ protect you. Even when you weren't my wife, when we were just friends, I kept protecting you."

"You don't do that with Naruto or Kakashi," she pointed out mulishly.

He smiled that rare, beautiful smile of his. "They're not as pretty."

A light blush appeared on her cheeks and was instantly irritated with herself. "I _hate_ it when you do that—it makes me feel easy," she muttered. "All you have to do is smile and give me a compliment and it's _poof_—hook, line and sinker."

"I should be grateful that only works with me, then," he said, thinking of all the men that had showered her with gifts and love words. He tilted her head back to look at her. "Listen to me. I don't doubt your abilities—I know firsthand how well you can cope, but you know it's against my nature to sit back and let you get beaten."

That was true. Even during their early days in Team Seven, when he'd made it so obviously clear of his feelings—or lack of them—for her, he'd always stepped in between her and danger. Back then, they had both believed—even when she decided to take the hopelessly optimistic approach—that he had done it simply because he hated to lose and an attack on her would mean a lost to the team.

But the two of them had come a long way since then and she was no longer the girl who complied to his every wish—_Kami, had she _really_ been that sad?_—and demand. She lifted her chin stubbornly and narrowed her eyes at her husband. "Sasuke, you're talking as if I'm going to my ass kicked. Do you _want_ me to bring up the fact that I got made ANBU before either you or Naruto did?"

He scowled. "That was under special circumstances. The ANBU needed a highly-talented—"

"That's right."

"—_medic-nin_," he finished tightly.

"An ANBU is still ANBU nonetheless. I had to go through the same torture you guys had to—heck, they probably went harder on me _because _I'm a woman." Sakura noticed the muscle tic in his jaw and knew it wasn't the time to roll her eyes. It was still somewhat of a sore spot for him—and Naruto—that she had donned on the ANBU uniform before they did. Not that they weren't proud of her but men and their egos were a funny thing.

"Sakura, you can't truly expect me to watch you in danger and do nothing? For that matter, do you expect _Naruto_ to do the same?"

She snorted. "No offense, sweetie, but your idea of danger when it comes to me could be a funny look from the enemy. And Kami, don't even get me _started_ on Naruto. And it's very hypocritical of you two too, considering the risks you both take during missions." She raised a perfectly-shaped eyebrow. "Admit it. When it comes to me, you two have a mother-hen complex."

He gave her an incredulous look. "A _mother-hen_ complex?"

"Trust you to hone on that comment," Sakura mumbled. She sighed heavily and gripped his shirt with her hands. "This isn't getting us anywhere so how about we compromise?"

Sasuke vaguely recall on how on the night before his wedding, Kakashi had placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and told him that his life would probably be easier if he had chosen a less smarter bride. Sasuke had ignored him, particularly because his former teacher had been rather intoxicated courtesy of Naruto and several barrels of ale.

Now, though, Sasuke couldn't help but wish his wife wasn't the smartest kunoichi he'd ever known. Of course, if she had been less intelligent, he wouldn't care for her as much as he did.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked, resigned.

"You let me fight and you won't interfere." He opened his mouth but she quickly cut him off by adding, "Unless I ask you to."

He frowned. "And what if you're too injured to ask for help?"

She placed a hand on her hip, her brows knitting. "Sasuke, do you think I don't know _when_ I have to ask for help? Do you think I'm _foolish?_"

It was on the tip of his tongue to answer "yes" but he didn't want her to spend the night at Ino's. And he didn't think truly she was a fool—far from it—but he knew how stubborn she could be. What if in a desperate attempt to prove that she was good enough, she continued to fight even though she knew she couldn't take on her opponent alone? He knew it was possible—he'd been guilty of doing the same once or twice.

"Sakura—"

She tugged on his sleeve. "Please." Her eyes were round as she looked up at him pleadingly. "This competition is important to the village. It's not only our skills as a team that will be judged, but also our skills as a shinobi. I _need_ to able to prove to the rest of the ninja world that I _can_ fight without my hot, tough husband or my loud friend-slash-teammate helping me out."

He looked chagrined at the 'hot, tough husband' part. He looked into her eyes, shining like emerald pools. "Fine," he finally declared. He pinned her gaze with his. "But you _will _ask for help if you need it." He wasn't going to take any chances; he'd lost too many things in his life already.

She grinned. "I promise." She rose to the tips of her toes to press a kiss to his mouth. "You really are a wonderful husband, you know."

"Hn," he grunted, but he returned the kiss, running the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. When she opened her mouth, he slipped his tongue inside and his arm tightened around her.

Sakura moaned when his hand brush her breast and hip to cup her rear end and as her blood heated and her pulse quickened, she threw her arms around his neck, her fingers slipping into his thick, unruly hair.

He didn't break the kiss as he lifted her up, her legs wrapped around his waist, and carried her to their bedroom. In there he set her down to undress her and then himself, his dark gaze heavily lidded as he stared at her naked body. She trembled under his scrutiny, her heart beating heavily in her chest, her lungs threatening to withhold air. She did a little bit of her own staring, her eyes roaming over the smooth, hard planes of her husband's body. He was so gorgeous, it was unfair. As a boy, he had been undeniably good-looking, but as a man . . .

Her arms once again wound around him as he pressed her to the bed, covering her smaller figure with her own. He kissed her, hard and full of passion and she moaned under the onslaught of his mouth. Some people would think that because of the cold personality he presented to the world, he would be indifferent in bed, but Sakura knew better—Uchiha Sasuke _was _really a genius at everything.

She gasped as he tore his mouth away from hers, his lips trailing down the side of her neck in a damp trail. Lust pooled in her lower belly, hot and intense, and she wriggled her hips, feeling the extent of his desire for her.

"Sasuke," she panted, her fingernails digging into the rounded muscles of his shoulders as his oh-so-talented mouth found her breasts, warm to the touch and swollen with her need for him.

His hands roamed possessively over her body, touching each hollow and curve. Silky-soft skin met his fingers and he traced circles around her navel, brushing the line where hip met thigh and triumphing in the strangled cry that escape hiswife's slim throat.

She was shaking hard by the time he thrust into her and her hips arched off the mattress. He gazed down at her and had to clench his jaw; she was beautiful like this, her face flushed with desire, her moss-green eyes so dark they were almost black. Her lips were puffy from his kisses, his name a constant mantra on her tongue.

He wrapped his arm around her waist to lift her higher against him while his other hand tangled in her long, pink locks. He tugged her head back and his mouth crashed down onto hers and he tasted the sweetness that was his wife. _His_.

"Sasuke!" she cried out as he withdrew and then pushed back in. Her head fell back and she wrapped her legs around his lean waist, pulling him deeper within her. "Oh!"

The muscles in his abdomen clenched and he was breathing as raggedly as she was. Uchiha Sasuke did not like to lose control but here, in the privacy of his bedchamber, with hiswife's delightful body surrounding him, he made an exception. He quickened his pace, moving deeper, harder.

When he felt the tightening of her body, he halted, holding her still when she attempted to press herself upwards. "Sasuke!" she protested. She was so close . . .

His grip on her almost stung and she gasped as she looked up at him, into his black eyes, where a hint of red was barely visible. It should have frightened her, his intensity, but it didn't. She lifted a trembling hand and touched his cheek. "What is it?"

"Promise me that you'll be safe, Sakura," he said harshly. "I _need _you to be safe."

Her eyes softened; there was that look in those dark eyes, the hint of vulnerability and self-depreciating because he _hated _the feeling. She ran a hand soothingly down his chest. "I'll be safe," she whispered.

Apparently, something in her voice—or perhaps her eyes—convinced him and the tendons in his neck strained as he pushed into her with a deep thrust. She cried out, clinging to her husband as she lost herself to the almost unbearable pleasure, vaguely aware that he too found his release.

And for the rest of the night, they both forgot about the approaching tournament as they found pleasure in each other's bodies.

**To be continued . . .**

Woo. I hope I didn't make that last scene seem tacky. And I hope it wasn't so detailed that I'd get in trouble with the powers that be of The scene was too short for me to go through the trouble of posting it on my LJ but I promise if ever I write a scene that is too detailed, I won't post it here, because I'd like to respect the rules of this website. Anywho, please show me some love by giving me reviews.


	2. Suspicions

Author's Note: This chapter isn't very important, but I had to write it in order to start the rest of the story. That said, I hope you will enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think about it.

* * *

** Chapter Two: Suspicions**

Sakura blew the stray strands of hair from her face and quickened her pace. Since her team wasn't scheduled to leave until after noon, she had squeezed in several appointments at the hospital, unable to brush aside her guilt for having to temporarily abandon her medical duties. But she had lost track of time during her final rounds and as a result, was not on time to meet her team. From her position she could already see the four of them gathered by the village's Northern gates and from the looks of it, one of them—mainly Naruto—wasn't happy. She guessed his mood was caused by the mischievously smiling man standing near their former-sensei, senbon stuck lazily out of his mouth, rather than having to wait for her.

"I'm here, I'm here," she announced, slightly out of breath.

"Ah, Sakura." Kakashi looked up from his book and gave her a stern-eyed look. "You're late."

She gaped at him. "Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black?"

He smiled underneath his mask. "But I always had a good excuse," he declared, ignoring the muttered "liar" from the blonde of their group. "What's yours?"

"I got held up at the hospital. Sorry," she apologized.

Genma smiled slyly at her. "You know if you're going to use that excuse you should've worn a sexy nurse outfit," he teased.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm a doctor," she reminded him wryly. "My uniform makes me look two sizes larger."

Genma shrugged. "I tried." He grinned charmingly at Sakura. "Fulfilling one of my fantasies by wearing the outfit is the least you could have done after breaking my heart and getting hitched to Mr. Glaring-is-the-way-of-the-world over there." He gestured with his head and she turned to smile at her husband, who had been leaning against the wall. Sasuke had of course heard Genma's remarks but aside from narrowing his eyes dangerously, he didn't react. _Thank God_, Sakura thought as she walked over to him. She was rather used to Genma's outrageous comments, having been his doctor during the times he became a patient at the hospital.

Sasuke's flak jacket was zipped all the way up, the long sleeves of the black shirt he wore rolled up to reveal his muscular forearms. She sighed as she noted how handsome he was and then frowned when she noticed the dark red edge of a scroll peeking from the pouch strapped to his thigh. She knew what this particular scroll summoned. "You're bringing the kusanagi?" she asked. It was the only thing he'd decided to keep from his "stay" in Sound all those years ago. Different from Orochimaru's—for one thing, he didn't keep it inside his body—the blade was slimmer, lighter and longer. It was an effective weapon and in Sasuke's hands, it was all but unstoppable. While the Hokage hadn't been pleased by his refusal to get rid of the grass cutter, she too agreed that it was formidable and had instructed Sasuke to hide it when he wasn't using it—thus the scroll. The only time he was allowed to carry it outside of the scroll was during ANBU missions and it replaced the customary katana all ANBU nins wore strapped to their backs.

"I was given permission." His tone told her to not make a big deal out of it. His wife might want to pretend optimism but he wasn't going to do the same; a gathering of the best shinobi from most of the ninja world was bound to have danger. Who knew what would happen_outside_ the competition ring? He wasn't going to take any chances. He also knew that both Kakashi and Naruto—and perhaps even Genma—had packed their personal weapons and he had a feeling that despite her show of buoyancy, if he were to search his wife, he would find the pair of lethal knuckle knives she had adopted from Sarutobi Asuma and then modified it to her suit her preferences.

Sakura knew saying anything would be a lost cause and she didn't want to appear a hypocrite considering the weapon she had in _her_ pockets. She retied her hair and adjusted the collar of her Jounin jacket, zipping it close over the black tank top she wore underneath. She smiled at her husband and grabbed the bag he was holding. "Thanks. I can carry it."

For a moment he looked like he was about to protest but he let it go as she slid the straps onto her shoulders. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." They were going to a nearby village where they would spend the night. From there, they would take a train in the morning that would bring them to the heart of Grass Country, Kusagakure. During their debriefing, Naruto had expressed his disbelief—callously so—that the Hokage would spend money for their mode of travel, which resulted in the now-broken window and the loss of furniture at the Hokage's office. It turned out that their travel fare was being sponsored by the Tournament committee and that the reason they had to go the nearby village—when they could have easily made it on-foot to Grass—was because it was one of the checkpoints, their arrival to Kusagakure being the final one.

"Yosh!" Naruto exclaimed as they walked through the open gates. He pumped his fist in the air, his bad mood dispelled. "Let's show those guys that the next Hokage and his sidekicks can kick their asses!"

Four people stopped in their tracks and when he realized he was walking alone, Naruto slowly turned around, a trickle of sweat dripping down the side of his face as he noted the sudden tension in the air. "Eh . . . something I said?"

Sakura glared at him. "Your _sidekicks_, Naruto?"

Naruto gulped as she slipped her hand into one of her pockets, knowing that her terrifying knuckle knife was in there. "_Ahahaha_, Sakura-chan," he said nervously, scratching the back of his head. "That came out wrong. _Of course_ you're not my sidekicks."

"Just so we're clear."

"Of course, of course!" Naruto said and breathed a sigh of relief when he took her hand out of the pocket.

Kakashi's voice was laced with amusement as he spoke. "Now that we don't have to worry about Naruto being hospitalized, can we leave? I want to make it to the village by dinner."

* * *

"Ano," Naruto interrupted the silence. He was walking next to Sasuke and Sakura with Genma and Kakashi trailing behind them. "Didn't Obaa-san seem a bit _too_ encouraging when she was debriefing us this morning?" 

"She was," Sakura agreed dryly. During the meeting, she had half expected the Hokage to start throwing confetti as she urged the team to win the Tournament. "I hate to sound disrespectful, but I think Tsunade-sama must have been to the liquor cabinet early today."

"That and she made a bet with several officials that we were going to win," Sasuke announced.

His wife gave him a surprised look. "How do you know?"

"I was handing in our papers when I overheard Shizune mention it to one of the other assistants."

"That's just great," Naruto groaned. "With the Legendary Sucker's kind of luck, we're doomed. _Doomed_."

Sakura lightly punched his arm. "You're so dramatic. You should have more faith in your leader."

"I do have faith in her—just not in her gambling skills," the blonde grumbled. "Or her decision making," he added with a nasty glance over his shoulder.

She placed a hand on her hip. "Don't tell me you're still sour about that. Get over it."

"But Sakura-chan!" Naruto protested. "Of everyone she could have chosen, why did she have to choose _him?_ He's a Tokujou—that's not even a _real_ Jounin."

"He's a Special Jounin, Naruto—that's technically a Jounin. He's in no way lesser than us," Sakura said patiently.

"That's what you think," Naruto muttered. "But still, Obaa-san could've picked _anyone_. She should've picked Neji."

"Not Neji," Sakura declared with a gesture at her husband.

"What about Shikamaru?"

"He's too busy with Special Tactics."

"Lee then."

"Not Lee either. Too much history."

"Damn it, even Kiba would've been okay."

"Not Kiba," Sakura said wryly.

Naruto frowned. "Hell. Then who do we know that's good enough to be in our team who doesn't have a crush on you, who you didn't date and that Sasuke doesn't want to fight with?"

Sakura glared at him. "You make me sound like a loose woman. I only went out with Neji and Kiba and neither relationship was serious. And Lee_had_ a crush on me—Tenten will skewer him alive if he decides otherwise."

"Kuso," Naruto groused. "Minus those three and the people Sasuke doesn't like, we have less than the entire shinobi force—maybe even less." He glared at his best friend. "Why the hell can't you be nicer to people?"

Sasuke had finally lost his patience with the conversation and gave the blonde a dark scowl. "Look," he began, "it sucks that Genma tricked you into kissing a man, but get over it, Naruto. This tournament is important and we can't have dissension among the ranks."

Naruto's face turned red and he jumped back, his finger pointed at Sasuke in a strong reminiscence of their Genin days. "You bastard, I _didn't_ kiss him!"

"Naruto, shut up."

"Don't tell me to shut up."

"_Urusei, baka_," Sasuke hissed and Naruto paused when he sensed the sudden alertness in his teammates. He held his breath and tilted his head to the side. The sun was shining and as he casually stretched, he noticed the dark shadows between the trees.

"How many?" he asked.

"More than six," Sakura answered quietly, appearing nonchalant as she reached for her kunai.

"Shinobi?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no," Sasuke replied under his breath. "They managed to mask their chakra but they're loud. Coordination is poor."

"Amateurs," Kakashi agreed from behind them. His book was still held in front of his face and he didn't seem at all concerned. "I think one of them dropped something when you guys were talking."

"How long have they been there?" Sakura wanted to know.

"Five minutes, give or take. But I think they're about to move in."

"Good." Anticipation crackled throughout Naruto body. "I was starting to get bored."

"Hey, I want in on the fun," Genma chimed. "You guys should make me feel like one of the team."

"Keh!" Naruto grunted. "Just watch my back, Senbon-boy."

"They're coming," Sakura warned.

True enough, a group of men jumped out of the trees and surrounded them. They were big, hulking man, their faces covered in masks very much alike to the one Kakashi had. They didn't wear any headbands nor any distinguishable symbols, though they each had the profile of an animal on the front of their shirts.

"Missing-nin?" Sakura wondered out loud.

"Doubt it," her husband answered.

One of the men spoke, his voice booming. "We are the Forest Bandits and we're here to make you suffer! Now give us all of your money!"

The silence that suddenly descended the clearing was so acute even the birds weren't chirping. Sakura blinked slowly. "You've _got_ to be kidding me," she said, slapping her forehead.

Naruto and Genma exploded into laughter, the blonde clutching his stomach as his shoulders shook uncontrollably. "Ahahaha—_Forest_—hahaha—_Bandits!_" he sputtered. "Dude, did you guys vote on that name?"

Genma's face was red with mirth and Sakura vaguely wondered how the senbon managed to stay in his mouth while he laughed. "That has got to be some of the cheesiest lines I've ever heard. What do you all do to your other victims? Make them laugh to the death?"

The man who had spoken twisted his face in anger. "You won't be laughing once we shove our knives down your throats. And just for insulting us, we'll show you no mercy."

"Yeah," one of his cohorts added, his eyes gleaming. "We'll slice you up real good and feed you to our dogs."

"That's original," Sakura muttered sarcastically.

One particular man broke away from the good and took a step toward her. He had a scar that ran from the middle of his forehead and disappeared into his mask and seemed to protrude as he eyed her lecherously. "You're a pretty little thing ain't ya? Maybe we'll have a go at you before we kill you." His gaze explored her figure, lingering on her breasts and hips. "Or maybe we'll keep you for entertainment, bitch. With that tight body, you gotta be good for something, ain't ya? Ever pleasure a man with that sweet mouth of yours, sweetheart?"

The amusement faded from Naruto's face and he glared at the bandit. "You dumb bastard, I almost, _almost_ feel sorry for you."

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" Scarface asked cockily.

He was screaming even before he finished his question and he looked at the kunai that stuck out from his thigh in disbelief before lifting his pain-filled gaze to his attacker. Fear crossed his face as he stared at the stoic features, the cold onyx orbs. Aside from his now-empty hand, the black-haired man didn't even seem as if he even moved. Kami, what incredible speed!

"That's why, you ugly shit," Naruto answered, yelling to be heard above Scarface's pitiful cries. "You see, that's her husband—" the blonde pointed at Sasuke "—and you just pissed him off."

Blood was bubbling out of Scarface's wounds and his face was quickly turning gray. He attempted to pull out the kunai but Sasuke had hit a specific spot and the agony of removing the weapon was as painful as being stabbed by it.

Scarface's fellow bandits glanced from him to their intended victims. "You'll pay for that," one of them growled.

Naruto pretended to yawn. "So are we gonna do it today or what, boys? 'Cause we're on a pretty tight schedule here."

"There are ten of them. That hardly seems fair, is it?" Sakura murmured.

"You're scared, girl? You should just surrender before you get hurt."

She ignored him and glanced at her teammates. "No hogging," she said sternly. "We get two each. And no killing, either."

"Aww, Sakura-chan, where's the fun in that?" Naruto whined.

"Hey, don't ignore us!"

"They're just common thieves, Naruto. Beat them up, tie them together and we'll bring them to the village with us. Let the authorities there handle them."

"She's right," Genma said. He sighed forlornly. "Much as I hate to agree, we can't kill them."

"But we can hurt them," Sasuke declared menacingly, focused on Scarface, who was still whimpering.

Kakashi massaged his neck and turned a page in his book with the other hand. "I'm getting to the good parts. I think I'll sit this one out."

Naruto grinned. "More to go around for us then." With that, he started to attack.

"Naruto, no hogging!"

* * *

"Man, I'm starving!" Genma declared as he sat down at the table. "I need hot food and for dessert, an even hotter woman." He winked at the pink-haired young woman sitting in front of him. "Care to oblige me, Sakura?" 

"She's married, asshole," Naruto, sitting beside Sakura, snapped.

"That makes it even more exciting. Forbidden fruit and all that," the Special Jounin said, smiling wickedly.

"Bastard," Naruto hissed.

Sakura rolled her eyes but before she could say anything, Kakashi and Sasuke walked into the restaurant they were in and made their way over to their table. "Well?" she asked them when they were within earshot.

"They're not talking, but that's no surprise. The local authorities are taking care of them, though _they're_ rather surprised," Kakashi said as he sat down. "They haven't heard of this group before today."

Naruto snorted. "What morons. First-time thieves and they decided to pick on a group of shinobi."

"I don't think they knew we were shinobi, Naruto," his female teammate pointed out. "Though our jackets are a dead give-away."

"Like I said—morons."

"They had the bingo book," Sasuke told them. He reached into his pocket and held up a small, black-colored book. "I confiscated it from the leader. We're in it," he added.

Sakura lifted an eyebrow. "We?"

"The entire Team Kakashi." The Uchiha heir's gaze over to the Special Jounin sitting across him "You too."

The orally-fixated man smiled. "That's good to hear."

"I take back what I said. Those Forest Bandits are even stupider than I thought they were," Naruto said in disgust. "They had the bingo book, they had our descriptions and _still_ they took us on? Ahous."

"The descriptions in this book aren't very detailed—at least not ours," Sasuke added, gesturing at himself, Naruto and Sakura. "And I think because of that, they thought they could take us on."

"What idiots!" Naruto exclaimed as he grabbed the book from his best friend. "They put us in the bingo book but they couldn't even take the time to describe us properly?" Insulted, he rifled through the pages. " 'Ability to summon toad?' 'Uses Rasengan jutsu?' 'Blonde hair?' That's _all?_"

Kakashi chuckled. "It's a low-classed bingo book. You see, the less dangerous the criminal, the less information he has in his bingo book. For that matter, every self-respecting criminal has a bingo book."

"Self-respecting?_Self-respecting?_" Naruto croaked. "You call those shits self-respecting? They didn't even get my height right! And look, the bounty for Sasuke is higher than mine! I'm gonna kill 'em!" He jumped to his feet.

Sakura grabbed his arm. "You're not going anywhere. We don't have time to play around with common thieves. Sit down _now_."

Naruto wasn't happy but he did as told, grumbling under his breath and squeezing the book as if he might tear it in two. But his grumpiness quickly disappeared as the waitress set their food on the table, giggling at a remark made by Genma as she returned to the kitchens with the promise of an extra bottle of sake—on the house.

"So," Genma said, clapping his hands and rubbing his palms together. "What are we going to do later?"

Sakura shot him a questioning glance. "What do you mean? We'll get our room keys and turn in for the night."

At that, the Special Jounin looked like a kicked puppy. "What? That's it?" he demanded incredulously. "You've got to be joking. Where are the bar fights? The damsels in distress? The assassins? The drunken orgies? You're _Team Seven_, for Kami's sake."

"And we have a six-am train to catch," Sakura said sardonically. "_Orgies?_ Just _who_ have you been talking to, Genma?"

"Apparently the wrong people," he replied with a disappointed sigh. "After all the stress of traveling today and those bandits, I was hoping to have some fun."

"We only had to walk for three hours and those bandits were less than a warm-up exercise," Naruto pointed out. "And you can have some _fun_ once we get to Kusagakure."

"Here, here," Sakura agreed. She stifled a yawn as she reached for a glass of water. "With my last-minute work at the hospital and coming here, I'm pretty bushed. All I want to do is find a nice warm bed."

"Speaking of which," Genma said, turning to Kakashi. "How many rooms did you get?"

"Only two," the silver-haired Jounin answered. "We're going to have to share. And since Sasuke and Sakura are married . . ."

Naruto grasped the implication and his eyes widened. "No way. I'm not going to share a room with him!" He pointed at Genma. "He'll probably put something in my bedroll!"

Sakura rubbed her temples. "Naruto . . ." She caught her former instructor's gaze and then glanced at her husband, who stared back at her stonily. She knew he wasn't open to the idea, but she also knew that Naruto was going to put up a big fuss and give her a headache. And despite his affability, she wouldn't put it pass Genma to do something just to get a rise out of her blonde friend.

She sighed. "Sasuke . . ."

If he hadn't thought it beneath him, he would have rolled his eyes. "Fine. Dobe, you can share the room with us."

Naruto calmed down. "Yeah? Cool." Then a strange expression crossed his whisker-marked face and he looked at the couple. "You guys aren't gonna get hot and heavy, are you? Not that I mind, but I don't want the mental image of you naked stuck in my mind, Sasuke. Sakura, on the other hand—"

"Hentai!" And the blonde groaned as he was knocked off of his chair.

* * *

Naruto was snoring and Sakura wanted to commit murder. She glared towards his direction at the other end of the room, where a glint of bright yellow hair was discernible in the blackness of the room. 

She turned onto her other side, facing her husband. He was sprawled on his back but the rhythm of his breathing told her that he too was still awake. Whether it was from the monstrous sound Naruto was making or from his own inability to find sleep in an unfamiliar place, she didn't know.

"Sasuke?" she whispered.

"Hn?"

"Do you know what's weird?"

"Aside from Naruto snoring and drooling over his pillow at the same time? Though granted I should be used to it by now." He gave a quiet sigh and then glanced at his wife. "What is it?"

"Isn't the Tournament's five-persons-to-a-team rule strange? I mean, a usual team consists of four people—an even number. Five is an odd number and it'll make it less easy to separate the group into two if there's a problem."

"Maybe that's the reason why. Kakashi did say the Tournament stresses on teamwork. Maybe the five-persons ruling is another one of the Tournament Committee's ways of making sure the teams stay together during the obstacle courses."

"Maybe," Sakura murmured. She nudged closer to her husband, stealing some of his body heat. She pressed her face to the side of his arm, sighing sleepily. "Is there something bothering you? You were quieter than usual during dinner."

He didn't answer immediately and just as she began to think that he was going to remain silent, he said, "The thieves we ran into today—the Forest Bandits."

"What about them?"

"I find it odd that no one's heard about them before today, especially with them being so near this village."

"They could be new, remember?"

"Think about it, Sakura. They could have chosen _anyone_ as their first victims, but they chose us."

Sakura lifted her head slightly and tried to peer at husband through the darkness. "You think they purposely targeted us?"

"Maybe. Maybe it _was_ a coincidence." Sasuke ran a hand over her head, pushing back her fair locks. "But they had a bingo book and even though they didn't fight like shinobi, they were able to mask their chakra."

"So maybe they learned how to do it from a shinobi," Sakura speculated. She yawned, her eyes watering. Naruto's snores were fading—fortunately for him since she'd been considering stuffing something in his mouth—and her weariness was quickly overtaking her. She could barely keep up with the conversation as it was.

"Don't think about it too much, Sasuke," she murmured, nuzzling his warm skin. "We already have enough matters on our hands—the Tournament, the possibility of someone causing trouble there, Naruto's refusal to get along with Genma. And you weren't exactly helping when you brought up the part of him kissing a man."

The Uchiha prodigy snorted. "Not that dobe will ever admit to _that_."

Sakura smiled sleepily. "In his defense, I heard from Kakashi that the guy was pretty damn hot. No wonder Naruto . . . didn't . . ."

Her husband pressed a kiss to her temple. "Go to sleep, Sakura."

"Mmm-hmm. Love you . . . Sasuke . . ."

* * *

Sakura rubbed her eyes, blinking rapidly to cast away the sleep from them as she stepped out of the inn behind her husband, Naruto following them at a slower pace. Kakashi and Genma were already standing outside, the latter grinning brightly despite the earliness of the hour. 

"Good morning all!" the Special Jounin greeted them. "Ah, Sakura, you're a sight for sore eyes. You look delightfully rumpled—like you just rolled out of bed after a night of hot—"

"_Enough_," Sasuke warned as he walked past the older man, his hand on the small of Sakura's back forcing her to keep up her pace with him. Naruto, who was too sleepy to shout at Genma, nonetheless flashed him a rude hand gesture before he joined his friends.

Kakashi shook his head and sighed, glancing at one of his long-time friends. "Genma, for the sake of your health, I hope you try to refrain from tweaking my former students' tempers."

Genma chuckled and slapped Kakashi's shoulder. "Now since when did I ever care about my health?"

They reached the train station ten minutes before the train departure. It was a modest machinery, not exclusive by any means, but not shabby either. They found their seating compartment at the back, passing several other passengers and a conductor who looked as if a light wind could tip him over.

Sakura sat between her husband and Naruto—who was now awake enough to give Genma the evil-eye. She ignored them and closed her eyes, deciding to get some of the rest her blonde friend had stolen from her the night before. She was drifting on the edge of unconsciousness, with the words exchanged between Naruto and Genma lulling her to sleep when the train suddenly jerked to a screeching halt. Surprised, she couldn't stop herself from lurching forward.

Gray hair filled her vision as her former teacher deftly caught her. He helped her sit up and briefly patted her head. "Thanks," she mumbled, blushing slightly because of her inattentiveness. "What's going on?" she asked.

"I don't know. The train suddenly stopped." Kakashi headed toward the door. "I'll go check it out."

"I'll come with you," Sasuke offered and the two men left the coach.

Sakura looked out of the small window. "You don't think someone's trying to rob the train, do you?"

"What, like the Train Bandits?" Genma smiled sarcastically. "With the way everything's gone so far, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case."

Kakashi and Sasuke reappeared minutes later, identical frowns on their faces. Naruto stood and put his hands on his hips. "So what's the hold up?"

"Apparently there must have been a landslide last night," Kakashi informed them. "There are several boulders blocking the road and it might be a while before they can get someone to come out of here and move them."

Sakura's eyebrows rose. "Boulders? How big are they?"

Her husband shot her a knowing look. "Big enough." He paused and then added, "Nothing you can't handle."

She grinned and reached for her black gloves. Over the years they had become her trademark and were a warning sign to her enemies, especially since she'd modified them and fitted them with her own version of knuckle knives. The brass knuckles were hidden under thin veils of leather, the retractable knives a surprise for anyone who made the mistake of pissing her off. She had spent hours—along with the help of Sarutobi Asuma and Nara Shikamaru—designing the gloves; it had been rather tricky, especially with the retractable knives. A mistake on that area could cost her a finger or two. The three of them had planned and plotted, but the effort paid off and the result was a perfect pair of her personal weapons.

She put on the soft leather and flexed her fingers. "Lead the way," she said.

Moments later, she was standing before the three boulders that were blocking the rail tracks. About three feet taller than her and five feet wider, they weren't, as Sasuke pointed out, anything she couldn't handle. She glanced at the source of the boulders, a nearby cliff where a deep groove had formed because of the landslide and whistled under her breath. "That's a pretty bad landslide."

"We get landslides a lot over these parts," the train engineer offered helpfully. He stood near the front of the train; he and several other passengers had emerged from the locomotive and were watching the small group curiously. "There's a stream underneath the cliff and a lot of people think it's the reason for the 'slides." A perplexed expression crossed his face. "Excuse me for asking, but what is it that you think you can do?"

"She's going to break 'em," Naruto told him.

One of the passenger snorted, disbelief apparent. "A little thing like you? We should just wait for help to come."

"We_are_ help," Naruto snapped. "Look, just stand back, okay? You might get hit by a rock. Wouldn't that be a nice sight to see?" he added nastily. Even after all these years he had never lost his natural protectiveness over Sakura, especially when someone insulted her.

Kakashi came to stand next to his female teammate. "Think you can break them?"

"I can, but I'm going to have to put in more force than usual if I want to disintegrate them completely. Breaking them into smaller pieces we have to move by hand would be time consuming." Though she sounded confident, inwardly she tried to calculate the level of her chakra. Yesterday, right before they left Konoha, she had treated a patient suffering from a serious disease. Added to the small scuffle on the way over her and her lack of sleep, she knew she hadn't recovered the amount she would like to.

As if he sensed her thoughts, Kakashi commented, "You were really tired yesterday—you sure you're not pushing yourself?"

Sakura shot her former teacher a look. "Positive. Don't worry so much,_sensei_," she told him. "You should step back. I wouldn't want you to hurt you."

Kakashi muttered a remark about disrespectful students that made her smile and he went to stand next to the other members of their team. She turned her attention to the boulders and started to gather chakra into her hands. She could feel it coursing through her body, a steady flow that began from the tips of her toes, spiraling its way upwards in a one perfect current. It had always been a point of pride for her, her chakra control. While she wasn't as fast as her husband or as resistant Naruto, she knew that when it came to chakra manipulation, she beat both of them hands down.

When she felt her fingers tingle, she swung back her fist and struck and watched with satisfaction as the large rock crumbled into dust.

"Woohoo, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered.

As Sasuke watched his wife systematically destroyed each of the boulders blocking the train tracks, he caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye. He quickly turned to look, only to find a bird flying from one of the trees surrounding them. His gaze narrowed as the bird disappeared over the mountains. The sense of foreboding came to him again and the suspicious within him grew. Was it a coincidence that there _happened_ to be a landslide on the day they were supposed to arrive at Grass? Or was it something _more?_

He glanced at Kakashi, wondering whether the older man shared his reservations. But even after all these years, it was still damned difficult to know what the Copy Ninja was thinking. The silver-haired Jounin appeared as relaxed as ever, seemingly unfazed by the occurred events so far.

The sudden silence broke through his thoughts and he became aware of the other passengers staring at his wife with looks akin to awe. She was finished, slipping of those deadly gloves of hers and tucking them back into her pockets. He wasn't bothered by the passengers' stillness. Team Seven had gotten used to the fact that Sakura was able to create craters with her hands but for those who had never seen her in action—and several others who had—it still took a while to comprehend, especially considering her petite figure. With her pale pink hair, her delicate features and her bright smiles, one would never wonder that she could put a hole through a wall with just a light tap.

Sasuke walked over to his wife, noticing the light sheen of sweat on her cheeks. He knew her chakra level was running low from her last-minute shift at the hospital and their journey yesterday and thanks to a certain snoring blonde, she hadn't had much sleep. She was a shinobi; pushing herself to the limit was a part of her job, but at the same time she was also his wife and he had to bite back the urge to reprimand her for overtaxing her chakra level.

He placed a hand on the small of her back, feeling the slight tremble underneath his palm. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She smiled reassuringly at him. "Of course. I just need to sleep a bit on the train then I'll be fine."

He made a mental note to draw out his kusanagi if Naruto decided to make a racket on the train. "Come on," he told his wife and guided her back to the locomotive. Another bird flew from a tree and his brows drew together. Standing out here in the open made him feel vulnerable and he didn't like it. The sooner they got on the train, the sooner they would get to Kusagakure and he would be able to settle his restlessness with a good fight or two.

* * *

As a shinobi Sasuke was trained to sleep and yet be aware of his surroundings; he had also trained himself to regulate the length of his sleep, whether it was five minutes or five hours. 

He had been asleep for twenty minutes when he opened his eyes; the rumble of the train was steady beneath his feet and through the window, he could see the lush greenery and craggy mountains.

They had arrived at Grass Country.

He looked across the coach at him where Kakashi sat, his ankles crossed, the ever-present book held in front of him. Genma sat next to him, amusing himself with a small rubber ball that he twirled between his fingers and a tune he whistled quietly.

The Uchiha prodigy turned to Sakura; she was still sleeping, her legs drawn up to her chest, her head resting on Naruto's shoulder. The blonde was awake, reading—of all things—a manga novel and he had his arm around Sakura's shoulder.

"Why are you cuddling my wife?" Sasuke asked with a frown, though for Sakura's sake, he kept his voice down.

"Because she knows you won't want to cuddle her in public and she wants to rest comfortably," Naruto shot back.

Genma spoke up. "If neither of you wants to cuddle her, I'd be happy to—" He broke off when two dark scowls were shot his way.

Naruto shifted his pink-haired friend slightly. "She's exhausted. She shouldn't have put in those extra hours at the hospital." He glared at his best friend. "Why the hell do you let her overwork?"

Before Sasuke had the chance to answer, Kakashi snorted and said, "I don't think he has much of a choice. Sakura's stubborn and if she wants to work overtime then that's exactly what she'll do." He lowered the book and looked at the two younger men. "You both have to remember that she isn't a child and you can't cosset her anymore. She's a valuable Jounin, an ANBU and she's one of the leading doctors at the hospital—she's more than capable of handling herself."

"We don't treat her like a child," Naruto denied. "We just take care of her."

"Just as long as you remember she's a ninja, too," Kakashi said casually.

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto responded and they couldn't even if they wanted to, for Sakura chose that moment to stir. She was slow to wake up and by the time she was blinking rapidly to clear away the sleep from her eyes, the train was slowing to a crawl.

She stood and stretched while the others reached for their satchels. Sasuke handed hers to her and she accepted it with a grateful smile.

"Remember," Kakashi said just as they were stepping off the train, "even though we're currently flying under the peace treaty, we still need to be on the alert."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "God knows how many shinobi there are out there who'd like to get a piece of us."

"Just my luck to be placed in your team, eh?" Genma said sarcastically.

"Well, if you don't like it, you can kiss my—"

"Naruto," Sakura hissed warningly, which instantly quieted the blonde down.

Sasuke stared at the banners hanging from the roof of the trainstation. They were signs welcoming all competing countries with the symbols of the villages portrayed on each banner respectively. His shoulders stiffened when his gaze fell on one particular symbol. He had known of course that they had been invited but he had thought that they wouldn't be competing, not in this kind of arena so soon after the Battle.

_Sound_.

**To be continued . . .**

I really love reviews. Please and thank you.


	3. Meeting Old Foes

All right, first of all, extreme apologies for the absolute lateness of updates because I've pretty much been busy with real life and was rather deep in a writer's block funk. But I thank all of you for your patience and your wonderful words of encouragement and support.

So here's the latest chapter of To Be the Best. I'm trying really hard to update my other stories as well, but I still feel a bit dissatisfied with my writing. Even this chapter didn't feel so hot. Hopefully, the next ones will be better.

As always, read, enjoy and review. Please and thank you.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Meeting Old Foes**

As expected, Kusagakure was smaller than either Konoha or Suna. The foliage was undeniably more abundant than either village and the air was thick with humidity. Once a village that had been caught in the middle of a war between the Fire and Earth Countries for so long, it was plain to see that it had been unable to cope very well economically during the aftermath.

But it was also obvious that the village had decided to spare no expense for the upcoming event. Buildings had been repainted, streets newly paved and merchants eagerly showcased their goods, their loud and cheerful welcomes clamoring for the visitors' attention. The Tournament, Sakura observed, was undoubtedly an economic boom for the villagers.

She kept close to her husband and Naruto, her eyes closely following the representative from the welcoming committee as he led them to the village's administrative center. She knew that with her pink locks, Naruto's colorful sense of fashion and Kakashi's masked face, they stood out like a beacon amidst the busy town. Already the street vendors were calling out to them while little children trailed after them, smiling and giggling when Naruto turned around and made funny faces as he waved at them.

"You're certainly good with the children," Sakura remarked, smiling at the sight of the cherubic faces.

Naruto shrugged. "I like kids, but I'm not ready for my own." He shot his best friends a sly glance. "When are you two gonna make me an uncle? I wanna make sure I get to them before Sasuke turns them into tiny versions of his emotional self."

Said Uchiha reached out and punched the blonde's upper arm. "You're never getting near them, numbskull."

"Oh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, blue eyes twinkling. "Does that mean there's already an Uchiha spawn in the oven?"

Sasuke merely punched him again while Sakura blushed slightly. She didn't miss the questioning look her husband gave her, to which she simply shook her head. The hand on the small of her back stiffened momentarily before it relaxed into a light but firm pressure on her covered skin. She wasn't sure if that meant he was disappointed or relieved, but either way, she believed that neither of them were ready to be parents yet.

A few minutes later they were standing by the reception desk in the administrative building. The pretty redheaded receptionist greeted them with a cheerful smile, handing over forms each member of the team were required to fill. Sakura didn't miss the way the receptionist's eyes traveled speculatively to her husband and quickly nudged Sasuke toward the table where the other members of their team were already seated, jotting down basic information about themselves. She had long gotten used to the inevitable fact that women, young and old, found her husband extremely attractive and had learned to temper her violent displays of jealousies. But she'd always been rather sensitive about redheads, despite Sasuke's firm reassurances that the rumors she'd heard about him during his self-inflicted exile from Konoha were completely false—_and a stupid thing to spread gossip about_, he'd added with an impatient sigh. _I was too busy trying to kill my brother. Do you think I had time to even _consider_ messing around with a teammate?_

"This is stupid," Naruto grumbled, chewing on the other end of his pen. "Why do we have to fill in these forms?"

Genma frowned slightly. "I was talking to one of the staff—"

"You mean you were flirting with her," the blonde interjected.

The special jounin merely shrugged nonchalantly. "As I was saying," he continued, "I was talking to one the staff and it turns out that the reason for all the checkpoints and these forms is to decide the order of the teams going into the competition. The first team to arrive in Kusa goes first and the last team goes last. That way there won't be any accusation of favoritism."

"Then what about the Grass shinobi team?" Naruto asked.

"They'll go first, of course. No favoritism at all," Genma added sarcastically.

"What's our position on the list?" Sakura wanted to know.

"I don't know," Genma replied. A crooked grin formed on his handsome face. "The staff member wouldn't say no matter how much I, ah, charmed her. She was one tough cookie. Maybe I'll ask her out. I've always loved cookies."

"We're not here to pick up women, playboy," Naruto jeered.

"Of course not. _You're_ here to pick up men," the senbon-user shot back.

That being said, the two furiously launched into an argument that brought up a misunderstanding from two years back, forcing Kakashi to interfere before Naruto wrestled the special jounin to the ground. The bickering caught a lot of attention from the people lingering in the reception hall, especially when out of irritation, Sakura bashed their heads together, telling them what they could do with their disagreement in a way that would have impressed even the saltiest of sailors.

"And they call you a delicate flower," Genma mumbled, rubbing his bruised forehead.

"More like a weed," Naruto snorted and received another meeting with Sakura's fist for his comment.

Sasuke looked over his wife's form as Naruto moaned in pain and nudged her when he noticed a mistake.

"Where?" she asked, refocusing her attention, her green eyes still blazing with exasperation.

"Here," Sasuke pointed out. "You wrote your name out as _'_Haruno _Sakura_.'"

"Oh," Sakura said sheepishly as she corrected her error. "Heh. Guess I'm not used to my new name just yet."

Sasuke looked as if he were about to say something but Naruto beat him to it with a snicker. "Shyeah. Ne, Sakura-chan, didn't you use to write _'Uchiha Sakura'_ on everything when we were kids just to see how it'd look like? You were so obsessed with it and made me call you _Mrs. Uchi_—"

The pink-haired medic narrowed her eyes dangerously. _"Do you want to die?"_ she hissed.

The blonde quickly shook his head, apologizing profusely. While Sasuke scared him sometimes, he freely admitted that it was _Sakura_ who really scared the shit out of him. He looked as if he were about to jump and make a run for it when Sakura suddenly stood. When she merely excused herself to the ladies' room, however, Naruto let out a long sigh of relief and relaxed. "Damn, Sasuke, your wife can make me piss in my pants when she wants to."

The Uchiha merely grunted, unwilling to admit that she had the same effect on him.

* * *

There were only two stalls in the ladies' room and one was broken. The other was currently occupied by an ancient-looking woman who moved so slowly, mold was beginning to form on the bottom half of her cane. Too impolite to rush the elderly and unwilling to use the broken toilet and _not_ flush, Sakura decided to use the men's room. It wasn't like she'd never done it before—sometimes you just _got_ to go and dear God, women peed a lot when they were in a bar—and she'd long gotten used to sight of the male anatomy to be bothered (Sasuke had taken this the wrong way when she'd told him, choosing to forget she was a medic).

Nonetheless, she kept her eyes forward as she walked into the men's room. The two men present shouted in surprise—please, _please_, do not turn around and _splash_ the floor—but she ignored them and dashed into an empty stall. Her business done, she left the stall and smiled politely at the man beside her as she washed her hands. He was giving her strange looks—not surprisingly—and finally said, "Must have been one hell of a surgery."

She grinned, not bothering to correct his misconception. "Hurt like a bitch," she declared cheerfully as she turned around and walked out of the restroom.

She was still giggling under her breath when she made her way back to the reception hall, only to find her teammates gone. _Impatient idiots_, she thought. She looked at the receptionist, who looked back at her as if she were a rodent. "Your _husband_," she sneered the word as if it were a bitter taste in her mouth, "and his friends are outside. Two of them were making too much noise."

Meaning Genma and Naruto had started up again and had been forced to leave the building, Sakura deducted with a silent groan, wondering where the small end table that had been in the sitting area was. Sighing, she made sure that the stuck-up receptionist had been given their papers_—"your husband was _very_ meticulous"—_and was told that a guide had been dispatched to show them their lodgings for the duration of the Tournament.

Her team wasn't directly outside the building, but Sakura understood what the scuffle marks on the ground meant and sure enough, could hear Naruto's shouts mingling with Genma's mocking laughter from somewhere in the distance. She sighed, knowing that Kakashi was probably standing at the sideline, the retched book in his hand, while Sasuke would be looking on with narrowed eyes, one second away from spitting fire out of his mouth—literally.

She was so intent in following the direction of her teammates' voices that she almost didn't notice the small group approaching her. By the time she finally did, they were standing in front of her, leers on their faces. She wasn't worried. She had assessed them from the corner of her eye: three men, their height ranging from just barely above hers to taller than the average human. This last one was built like a bull and reminded her of Juugo, from Sasuke's former they-served-a-purpose-and-will-you-guys-just-get-over-it team.

The reminder wasn't so strange, though, considering the men were from Sound.

Sakura's back stiffened, recalling her last encounter with Sound nins, Sasuke's entire retrieval episode aside. That Tayuya bitch had forced her to cut her _hair_. Granted, she'd grown more from the experience, but that still didn't make her forget the hours she'd spent in the bathroom, crying over her shorn pink locks.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" one of Sound shinobi said, smirking at her. He was obviously the leader, the gray yukata he wore made from expensive fabric, his stance just a little bit prouder, his air just a little more dangerous. He was nearly as tall Naruto, his dark hair spun into a braid that fell over one shoulder. He was handsome, she supposed, if one couldn't see the nasty glint in his brown eyes or hear the false sincerity in his voice.

She studied him closely; while one of his colleagues might have seemed like a mammoth, hovering next to him, she knew that _he_ was the one she had to be careful of. "I don't want any trouble, boys," she said quietly, straining her ear to listen for her teammates.

The leader grinned. "That's a pity. You sure look like the kind of trouble I'd . . . _enjoy_."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Kami, save me from bad lines in this trip," she groaned, tugging on the ends of her ponytail.

The third man in the group, a rather short, unintimidating-looking fellow snickered like a hyena and said, "I think she's just insulted ya, Raido."

"Yeah, Raido," Mammoth Man agreed gruffly.

"She wouldn't dare," Raido sneered, though the tips of his ears were slightly red. He looked at her, his eyes moving slowly over her. "Leaf, huh?"

Amazing_ powers of deduction,_ Sakura thought sarcastically. "Yeah. What about it?"

He sneered. "What are you, their cheerleader? You're awfully small to be competing."

She fumed. This was the second time an enemy had commented on her size! Did they _want_ to see her crack a hole in the ground? "And you're awfully ugly to be talking to a girl like me," she shot back. Okay, yeah, that wasn't such a witty comeback, but there was no point wasting the good ones on him.

Nonetheless, Raido took offense to her words and narrowed his eyes angrily. "Big mouth for a small girl," he hissed. "Who are your teammates, bitch? Are they all as weak-looking as you?"

Oh, he did _not_ just say the W-word! Her hand lifted before she could stop it, but to her shock, gigantic fingers wrapped themselves around her wrist, holding her so strongly, her feet were almost off the ground.

Her wide eyes zipped over to the Mammoth Man, who stared back at her impassively, before returning to a pair of brown ones that gleamed smugly at her. "You should watch yourself, babe," he chuckled. "My teammate might be a bit too slow in the head, but he's really fast with his hands."

Sakura glared at him, biting back her wince when the giant tightened his grip. "You should probably tell Moby Dick over here to let me go," she warned, gathering _chakra_ in her hands. "Or I might just a tear him a new one." The corners of her mouth suddenly tilted upwards. "Or . . ."

"Or what?" Raido snapped.

Sakura smirked. "Or _my_ teammates will do it for me."

No sooner had she spoken those words, a black blur appeared in front of her and her captive let out a pained cry. He quickly let her go and she landed neatly on her feet, her gaze filled with the sight of the Uchiha crest as her husband stood in front of her.

"Keep your fucking hands off of her," he hissed and she nearly swooned because _really_, what girl didn't dream of that kind of line?

"Sakura?" he said without looking back.

She knew what he was asking and touched him briefly before taking a step back. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked as he appeared beside her. His hair was mussed and there was dirt on his face, but he looked almost as scary as Sasuke.

"I'm _fine_," she stressed. "I could have handled it, thank you very much."

"We know," Naruto said, patting her head and making it obvious that he was merely indulging her. She opened her mouth to bite his fingers.

Raido and his teammates had apparently gotten over their shock and were now staring at Sasuke, recognition on their faces. "Uchiha Sasuke," Raido murmured.

"Sagara Raido," Sasuke returned.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto interjected, his hand hidden behind his back, protected from his teammate's teeth. "Now are we all done with the introductions? You want to tell me what the _fuck_ you were doing touching my friend here?"

"I heard they let you come back," Raido said to Sasuke. "I guess Konoha's desperate enough to take any Tom, Dick and Traitor back these days."

"Oi, don't ignore me, asshole."

Sasuke smirked. "I'm surprised they let _you_ come here, Sagara," he said, his eyes showing his mirth. "You were always the weak one. Couldn't even hold your kunai properly. Did your father bribe the Committee, or does Sound just lack competent shinobi?"

"You should know, bastard" Raido spat angrily. "You killed almost all of them."

"I killed only those that deserved it," the Uchiha said coolly. "And I'll kill you if you ever touch her again."

The words would have seemed corny if they hadn't been delivered with such calmness. Raido scowled, his eyes roaming over Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. "Well, well . . . an Uchiha, a blonde loudmouth and a pink-haired _girl_ . . . you _must_ be Team Seven." The Sound shinobi snorted. "The rumors must not be accurate then." He raised an eyebrow at Sakura and Naruto. "You two don't mind working with this turncoat? From what I hear, treachery runs in the family."

Sasuke stiffened while both his wife and best friend took a step forward until they flanked him on either side, their faces drawn into a menacing glares.

"Watch what you're saying, punk," Naruto growled.

"Or you'll find out firsthand that the rumors _are_ accurate," Sakura added bitingly.

"Go ahead, woman," Raido challenged.

"No." Sasuke raised a hand, halting his teammates' progress, earning him surprised looks. "We'll deal with this in the Tournament. We're not here to start another War."

"Afraid, Uchiha?" Raido sneered.

Said Uchiha calmly turned around to face them and the Sound shinobi physically withdrew when they saw the redness of his eyes. "Don't tempt me," Sasuke said dispassionately. "You _know_ what I can do." To his teammates, he said, "Let's go."

The two followed suit as Sasuke walked away, Naruto shooting smug looks over his shoulder at the Sound shinobi. Standing several feet away was Kakashi, his pose languid, but all three knew that their former sensei had been very much alert, waiting to intervene if necessary.

The silver-haired jounin pocketed his book as they approached him. "Genma's distracting our guide. It wouldn't help our image to start a fight so soon," he said. He glanced at Sasuke, whose eyes had returned to their color. "Very mature of you."

Sasuke grunted. "Can we go now?" he demanded impatiently.

_"You _were the slow ones," Kakashi pointed out.

* * *

They found Genma talking to a Grass official, making sure that the representative's back was facing the rest of the Konoha team members. The representative, a short young man, greeted them eagerly and made small talk as he guided them to their accommodations. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto remained quiet as Genma entertained the official, showing interest as the latter pointed out various hot spots around town.

Their temporary residence, surprisingly, was not the hotel they had expected, but rather a modest-sized bungalow nestled among the lush greenery nearly twenty minutes away from the bustling town. The building, one among several identical ones located in the area, looked new, the rooftops stilly shiny, the paint still all but wet. The Konoha emblem gleamed proudly on the front gate of the compound and looking at the houses, the team saw the other villages' symbols as well.

"Looks like no expenses were spared," Sasuke muttered as they entered their lot.

"I just hope that officials will be patrolling regularly," Sakura said. "These houses are too close for comfort. I think Rock is our neighbor."

"We'll set up traps," Kakashi assured her, careful to stay out of the Grass representative's hearing.

"I call the master suite!" Naruto crowed as they entered the traditional single-story house.

"Actually, Uzumaki-san," their guide began, "all five bedroom units are the same size, so there is no master suite. Here is the main room, and the kitchen is through there. There are two bathrooms and the garden is . . ."

The guide trailed off, eyes widening as he realized that he was standing alone in the main room. He stepped into the hallway, growing uncomfortable when Uzumaki-san and Shiranui-san were standing in the doorway of one of the bedrooms, arguing with each other.

"I was here first," Genma stated triumphantly.

"He's right, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Pick another room."

"But I like the view in _this_ one!" Naruto argued.

"Pick another one," his former instructor repeated firmly.

"You _never_ take my side," the blonde whined childishly. "Oi, Sasuke, Sakura, switch with me, will ya?"

The couple, who had decided to take the room at the end of the _rouka_, thus affording them the most privacy, gave their friend incredulous looks. "Piss off, idiot," Sasuke replied in a bored tone as he went into the bedroom.

"Don't be difficult, Naruto," Sakura pleaded before following her husband.

"Fine," Naruto grumbled and stormed into one of the two remaining rooms, sliding the _shoji_ shut with a force that shook the wall.

"The accommodations are very satisfactory," Kakashi told the Grass official pleasantly, raising his voice to be heard above the banging coming from inside Naruto's bedroom as the blonde made his irritation clear.

The guide left quickly after that, recalling some of the rumors he'd heard about this particular team and not wanting to learn if they were true.

* * *

"Is he gone?" Naruto demanded crossly as he stepped into the central room, where Genma and Sasuke were already seated around a table while Kakashi lounged on the porch revealed by the opened _fusuma_, his back against a partition.

"Congratulations, Naruto," Sasuke said sarcastically. "You've officially scared a Grass official. That didn't take long."

"_He's_ annoying me," Naruto declared vehemently, pointing at the smiling Genma. "He's worse than Sasuke when were Genins."

"That's because you're still as retarded as you were as a Genin. Maybe even more so," Sasuke sneered.

"That's enough, boys," Sakura interjected as she walked out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of cool drinks. "The way we argue, I won't be surprised if word has already spread that the Konoha team hate each other."

"Word probably has spread that the Konoha team hates _every_one, considering that little show you three put on with the Sound team," Genma remarked, rolling his senbon between his fingers.

"Speaking of which . . ." Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Why did you stop us? We would have _so_ kicked those bastards' asses."

The Uchiha prodigy shrugged. "It isn't like Kakashi said—sure, it wouldn't have helped our image, but I don't give a fuck what people think. More importantly," he added, "we weren't the only teams there, Naruto. We shouldn't let our opponents see our abilities before we're ready."

"Well said, Sasuke," Kakashi approved. "Some of them know what we can do, some of them only _think_ they know what we can do. Why spoil the surprise?"

"Who were they anyway?" Sakura asked her husband as she handed a drink to her former sensei.

"The one in the middle was Sagara Raido. His family is old-money in Oto and used to be one of Orochimaru's financiers. They're rich, but not very skilled in fighting. Raido's only a second-generation shinobi. The last time I saw him he was adequate, but not good enough to be in this competition so I don't know how he's progressed," Sasuke informed the room. "The short one was Aritsu Han. _He_ comes from a shinobi family. He doesn't have a bloodline limit, but there's a special jutsu in his family that's been passed for generations."

"What kind of jutsu?" Naruto wanted to know, unfazed by Sasuke's knowledge about Sound.

"It's . . . strange," Sasuke answered, frowning a bit. "I've only seen it once. It's as if he taps into a part of his body that's able to produce an endless amount of chakra."

"So it's chakra-orientated," Kakashi observed, glancing at their leading chakra manipulator.

Sakura chewed on her bottom lip. "Maybe it's like the _Souzo Saisei_ jutsu. I have to see it in action," she said thoughtfully.

"So who was Gargantuan?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke's dark eyes flashed briefly before he responded. "Mamoru. Just Mamoru. He was an orphan that Orochimaru took in. He was . . . experimented on."

The rest became quiet at this, understanding the Uchiha genius's implication. Before his untimely death at Sasuke's hands, Orochimaru had been infamous with his experimentations in trying to create the perfect breed of fighters. Most of the experiments had botched, but others, like Kimimaro and Juugo, had produced extremely dangerous results.

"How bad?" Kakashi spoke quietly.

"He's slow in the head. Can't think by himself. A _real_ soldier—won't even eat unless he's being told to. But he's useful in combat. He doesn't do ninjutsu or genjutsu, but relies on pure strength. And he's fast."

Naruto's bright blue eyes widened at this last one. Though it irked him to admit it, but when it came to speed, there was no denying that Sasuke was the best. The bastard could move to several spots in a blink. So when he declared someone was fast, you had to believe that this was no turtle he was talking about.

"He really is," Sakura agreed softly, unconsciously rubbing her wrist.

Sasuke turned to her, his gaze watching her closely. "Did he hurt you?"

His tone implied that if her answer was anything but a negative then he wouldn't hesitate to dole out some pain of his own. Not wanting to make a big deal out of what was basically a normal spat between competing villages, Sakura shook her head. "No. He just surprised me. I didn't expect a man his size to be able to move so quickly."

"He's weak if you manage to hit him," Sasuke confided. "If you can bring him down, then keep him on the ground. His size is more of a hindrance than an advantage."

"Should we be worried about this, teme?" Naruto asked. "They'll be gunning for us."

"_Everyone_ will be gunning for us," Kakashi corrected matter-of-factly, without any arrogance. "Some even more so because of personal grudges. It won't be easy, but we'll fight."

"We'll fight," Sasuke echoed quietly.

**To be continued . . .**


End file.
